Last week, ElevenLabs doubled its valuation to $22 billion.
On paper, it was the startup most likely to be crushed. It makes AI voices, and every big lab can teach its models to talk.
Ben Horowitz uses it as his favorite example of how the AI market works. a16z co-led the Series A in 2023, when ElevenLabs was a year old, and has invested again in its later rounds.
His read on the rest of the market fits in five lines:
AI is a new computer, and it is bigger than the internet
the boom has pockets of excess, but the 1999 math doesn’t apply
money can now buy a lead that used to take a decade to build
customers can rebuild a lot of their software on their own
the infrastructure under AI is wrong, and it will be rebuilt
Why it matters? Each of those lines changes what you should build, how you defend it and who you will compete with.
📚 In this newsletter, I break down where Ben Horowitz sees the AI market going, which moats hold up against the big labs and where founders should build next. The clips come from his interview with James Norman on Vintage x Vintage.
High-signal analysis on markets, capital and the companies shaping the next decade
Inside you will find:
Why AI Is Bigger Than the Internet See why Ben calls AI a new computer and what it lets a founder with domain knowledge build alone.
Why the AI Boom Isn’t 1999 (Yet) Learn where bubbles come from and where an excess of GPUs could still show up.
Why a Head Start No Longer Protects You Find out why money can now close a gap that used to take years of engineering.
How ElevenLabs Built a Moat the Big Labs Can’t Copy See the four steps that took a voice startup from vulnerable to $22 billion.
Why Your Customers Can Now Rebuild Your SaaS Learn which software customers rewrite for themselves and which they keep paying for.
Where to Build Next: The AI Infrastructure Rebuild Find out why Ben thinks everything from the chip to the model will change, and where that opens room for startups.
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